Liam Brooks

Name: Liam "Brook" Brooks

Gender: Male

Age: 19

Grade: Senior (12)

School: Bayview Secondary School

Hobbies and Interests: Gardening, Botany, Cross-Country, Irrigation Design

Appearance: Standing 6'3.5" and weighing 188 pounds, Brook's overall figure resembles that of a high school basketballer or wide receiver in the off-season. Generally thin, his muscles can be best described as 'lightly set'. He is not 'ripped' in any fashion; as such, his biceps and abs are only shapely if flexed. As a slight contrast, the muscles across his back are more prominent and easily show if bare-chested or his shirt sticks to him, as it often does during hot summer days. Brook possesses blue-green eyes from his father's side of the family and rather dark brown hair from his mother's side. Brook likes to grow his hair out despite constant insistence from his parents to cut it, and generally manages to have the back grow to just an inch above his shoulders while the front is trimmed, the sides partially-so. When working or doing other physical activities, the long part of his hair in the back is held with an elastic. Brook wears a size 12 shoe, somewhat small given his height. His average manner of dress consists of slightly muddy work boots (he has an old pair of dress shoes from his father that he wears when forced, but he wears the boots to school), jeans, and a long-sleeved T-shirt which could have one of many designs, Brook owns about 40 of these shirts with no repeats.

Biography: Liam was born to Lawrence and Gwendylyn Brooks, a middle-class couple. Liam was the couple's first and only child. As an infant and young child, Liam was absolutely unremarkable... at least as far as children go. Only when Liam began to attend Bayview Elementary did his peculiar set of characteristics develop.

The first such characteristic was Liam's nickname, an obvious derivative of his last name. 'Liam' isn't exactly one of the most common names in the world, and plenty of first-graders have issues saying it. His friends began to call him by his last name instead, first "Brooks" and then finally just "Brook". The name stuck, even as he grew older.

The second characteristic, and one of the most prevalent is Brook's love of plants. Back in first grade, the old activity of incubating chicken eggs that was practiced by schools for years was swapped out for one where children grew their own lima bean plants from the beans themselves. Brook's particular success made him try to recreate the experiment in the backyard, where... he failed miserably. To try and figure out why, he had his mother drive him to the library to grab as many books of gardening as he could find, even ones that he couldn't quite fully understand at the time. His father dug an old unused pair of gardening tools, a rake and a hoe, for Brook to make a small plot in the backyard. The work was intense (especially for a little kid), but preserverence smiled upon the finished rectangle of tilled soil.

From there, Brook balanced schoolwork with gardening, finding a job at a local plant nursery at the age of 15. He often ended up running between the nursery's greenhouses and a farm on the outskirts of town to load and desposit manure, which helped to build up his upper body strength. He used a truck for running the loads of manure, but smaller trips (such as delivering plants) were done on foot. Because of this, Brook gained a slight affinity towards cross-country running as well; it was enough to inspire him to try out for and participate on the Cross-Country team at Bayview Secondary.

Even with his hobbies playing such a prevalent role in his life, Brook never let school fall under the radar. There was no subject that he could love at any level even approaching that of his love for plants, but he did take a shine to literature classes (art and history could pretty much go to hell, though). Somehow, Brook kept nearly all of his grades at or above B level (ignoring the occasional C on his report card) while also maintaining a social life. Finding friends that shared his general interests such as the outdoors and running, he led what many would describe as the average, comfortable life at school.

While senior year approached, Brook looked for a solution to the strife that rural areas encountered with agriculture; specifically, droughts. His latest project that he was working on at the time prior to his 'invitation' was an irrigation system improvement that, he hoped, would get him into college and even be used out in the midwest to bring water to ranches.

Advantages: Brook has a natural liking for the outdoors, and can identify an absurd amount of plants, even tropical ones due to all the reading he's done on botany. His easy-going, non-conflictual personality aids him in attempts to join groups while, if need be, he can keep himself company just fine. Combat-wise, his only possible advantage is that his 'tools of the trade', hoes, rakes, pitchforks, etc. all feel completely natural to him, and he can use such impliments more naturally than most others.

Disadvantages: Brook may have good physical strength, but he's also notoriously clumsy and can't sneak around even if he wanted to. His stamina-running also doesn't accomodate very high speeds, effectively removing the option to flee away by sprinting. Brook is hemophobic, growing faint at the sight of any of his own blood, or significant quantities of other people's blood. Finally, as a minor setback in comparison, Brook burns easily in the sun if he isn't careful about covering up (this is why he often wears long-sleeved shirts).

Designated Number: Male student no. 25

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Designated Weapon: FP-45 Liberator (.45) [x10 rounds]

Conclusion: Fainting at the sight of blood? Is this kid for real? What a delicate flower! Too bad there's going to be plenty of people out there willing to give him a brutal pruning...

'The above biography is as written by MK Kilmarnock. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: MK Kilmarnock

Kills: Ridley Landon, Raine Schwarz, Colin Falcone, Vivien Morin, Örn Ayers, Rachel Gettys, Neill Robertson, Nathan Choultard

Killed By: Jason Harris

Collected Weapons: FP-45 Liberator (.45) [x10 rounds] (Assigned Weapon)

Allies: Jason Harris, Nathan Choultard

Enemies: Leila Langford, Ridley Landon, Raine Schwarz, Colin Falcone, Kimberly Nguyen

Mid-game Evaluation: Brook started off by reacting very emotionally to having woken up on the island. His crying improved a little when he found three of his friends nearby, the three of them forming a group. The four friends travelled together for some time, picking up Leila Langford along the way. Leila took advantage of Brook's fear of blood to take his gun, then left the group. Jason and Brook departed to try and tail Leila, but ended up getting separated. Brook happened upon Tiffany Baker, but before much else could happen, Jason misunderstood the situation and shot Tiffany dead, causing much confusion and outrage. Brook disappeared in the chaos, taking Tiffany's body with him. Things only got worse from there as Brook lost his mind, killing anybody who entered his vinicity until he himself was killed by Jason Harris.

Post-Game Evaluation: Who knew the 'Mighty Zinnia' had it in him? A shame about his 'monument to beauty', though. Mr. Harris burned it to the ground, ensuring just about everybody will forget that B025 and his little crush ever existed.

Memorable Quotes: " Just for you… I’ll make this place entirely for you, Tiffany, and nobody else. Until the day I die, it’s all about us. And once I do, we’ll be together again… "

"This garden... when I'm gone, when... he's... just burn it all. I made it thinking it would be... I don't know... beautiful or something, but it's not. It's ugly and it's a disgrace to her... to everybody. Just destroy it..."

Other/Trivia

 * Brook was leading in the polls of the last ever 'Character of the Month' contest. The poll was never closed out though, and thus he never officially won the prize.
 * As of this writing, Brook currently holds the record for scoring the most kills in a single thread, having killed eight other students in Bloodgarden.
 * All of Brook's kills took place in Bloodgarden.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Liam, in chronological order.

The Past:
 * Take me out: Holiday from real.

Pre-Game:
 * Philosopher At The Gazebo
 * Bunsen's Spark
 * Roses Without Thorns
 * An after school meeting
 * Tending the Flowers
 * A Few Administration Issues

V4:
 * Flowerhead
 * The Only Way Is Up
 * Carpe Noctum
 * It's Everything's Nature to Fall
 * Bloodgarden
 * A White and Soundless Place
 * Bloodgarden (return to thread)

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Liam Brooks. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * Brook is one of my favorite killers in V4. He's a character who worked for me on a subtextual level. I talk about this a lot, so I'm just going to throw up my interpretation of Brook here since it's a big part of why I like him.

In pregame and at the start of V4, Brook is a really nice, normal guy. The weirdest thing about him is that he's afraid of blood. He's got a very developed set of friendships and other interpersonal relationships, including a best friend and a crush. When Brook enters the game, he teams up with Jason, Nathan, and Maf, and together they form one of the most solid, generally sane groups in the game. Things go wrong for them, rather predictably for SOTF, especially as Leila Langford takes advantage of their general kindness. Still, they generally soldier on until Jason kills Tiffany through a series of misunderstandings.

This is where Brook begins the project he's most famous for. Basically, with Tiffany dead, Brook gives up and starts killing, creating a shine with the bodies of his classmates. He very suddenly begins acting in twisted, crazed ways. I think this is the key. Brook's transition is not slow or considered. This is, I think, because he makes a conscious choice and is then forcing it.

Brook is, as mentioned before, a generally nice guy. Once he decides to give that up, he starts acting in evil ways that approach the cartoonish, developing racist attitudes and such which were never evident before. I feel that Brook basically has been kicked around by the island enough, exposed to enough bad things, that he decides that good cannot win in SOTF. He's scared and confused, and the only way out that he sees is joining in, becoming a monster so that he no longer has to be afraid of them. The problem is, Brook is not a bad guy. When he tries to be awful, he's left grasping at straws.

For his attempt at evil, Brook chooses intolerance and violence. he specifically fixates on blood, because blood is his fear. By embracing it, he shows that he's serious about things. He bleeds people because that's the most horrifying thing he can imagine, and he's racist because it's something that, in normal circumstances, he'd think is despicable. Brook conquers his fears by becoming them, leaving him nothing really to be afraid of.

This theory is bolstered by the fact that Brook is clearly not entirely insane. He constantly has to keep talking himself into keeping the act up. There are tons of hints that his heart isn't entirely in it, that he's fully aware of what he's doing and is just forcing it under the surface. It is, then, no surprise that Brook manages to come back to his sense at the end; he never entirely abandoned them to begin with. He's never someone who tried to win the game. He knew he wasn't leaving alive. Instead, he just employed truly awful coping mechanisms to make his inevitable death a little less scary and easier to bear.

So, yeah, that's why I like Brook. There's a bit more detail in the theory, and maybe I'll add it in sometime later, but that's the basics. - MurderWeasel